Pioneers Advance to WIAC Semifinals in Sweep Fashion

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville volleyball team defeated UW-Eau Claire in three straight sets Tuesday night at The Sonnentag Event Center to advance to the WIAC Tournament Semifinals this Thursday in Oshkosh. The five seed Pioneers (25-5, 4-3 WIAC) defeated the four seed Blugolds (20-8, 4-3 WIAC) by scores of 25-18, 25-17, and 25-23. 

UW-Platteville set the tone of the night early, rushing out to a 10-2 lead in the opening set behind seven team kills and two service aces by junior Grace Betke. The Blugolds called timeout to compose themselves and retuned with a 7-0 rally of their own. A kill by senior Emma Carlson returned the serve to the Pioneers and they began to pull ahead once again, winning the set 25-18.  

UW-Eau Claire kept the second set a much closer contest at the start, but a kill by junior Kierney McDonald gave the Pioneers a 13-10 lead and a spark to go on an 8-2 run. Carlson tallied nine kills alone in the second set and a kill by freshman Brooklyn Radecke finished the set to give UW-Platteville a 2-0 lead.  

Fighting to keep their season alive, the Blugolds exchanged the lead four times with the Pioneers in the final set, while also seeing 13 tied scores. UW-Platteville was not making things easy for UW-Eau Claire, fighting to keep every point alive. Five straight kills by Carlson catapulted a 7-2 run in favor of the Pioneers, but one final rally by the Blugolds tied the set 23-23. A free ball at the net was put away by McDonald to force match point and it was fittingly Carlson who wrapped up the match with her 20^th kill of the night to capture the 3-0 victory.

Carlson finished with 15 digs to accompany her 20 kills for a double-double.  Also finishing in double-digits was McDonald with 12 kills, junior Bri Gartner with 18 digs and junior Gracie Gibbens with 34 assists. 

The Pioneers hit .265 across all three sets, with a high .317 in the second set. The Blugolds finished hitting .167 as UW-Platteville held them to as low as .125 in the second set. 

The Pioneers will return to action at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 14 when they travel to UW-Oshkosh for the WIAC Semifinals. 

*As with every UW-Platteville win this year, the Platteville A&W will be offering a $3 Pioneer burger the day after the win and the Platteville Taco John's will be offering 10 tacos for $10 the day after each Pioneer win.